Weekly television digest (Jan-Dec 1963)

I AB LIBRARY ''■•“"Television Digest with Consumex* Electronics . . .(starts page s) MAY 20, 1963 NEW SERIES VOL. 3, No. 20 The authoritative service for executives in all branches of the television arts & industries SUMMARY-INDEX OF WEEK^S NEWS Consumer Electronics Broadcast NEXT— THE 'HENRY ADMINISTRATION', expected to regulate more via rules than through appeals to public a la Minow. Henry gives views on fop topics. What's expected of Loevinger. Minow summarizes 2-years' events (p. 1). VHP DROP-INS— THE 51-49 QUESTION facing Minow, who is probably the swing man. Fortunes ride on vote (p. 3). STAGE SET FOR NAB'S RATINGS REMEDY: Harris Subcommittee to hear Pres. Collins; NAB-RAB meet again, not yet agreed; NAB shows proposal to raters, asks support; Harris addresses SRA (p. 3). SHAPE OF FCC'S TV PROGRAM FORM beginning to emerge as Bartley, Ford & Cox submit concepts for full FCC discussion, possible this week. Three approaches, with many similarities, studied (p. 5). TOO-MANY-COMMERCIAIS PLAN issued by FCC, 4-3 vote, July 1 deadline for comments. Hyde sees 'enormous policing' job, departure from statute. Bartley calls it 'irritating act of futility,' says quality should count, not quantity. NAB's Collins asks top agencies to 'cooperate' with Code subscribers (p. 6). PROPOSED AM-FM STANDARDS; FCC sets rule-making to tighten engineering, encourage FM growth; rules would establish maximum number of stations per market by population, would forbid more than 50% FM duplication of AM (p. 7). THE NEW LINES— Philco & RCA feature surprising price reductions and upgrading of product without increases; both show 16-in. sets at $129.95, place more emphasis on middle & low-end consoles & combinations. RCA $450 color drop-in may be coming (pp. 8 & 13). TINYVISION, U.S. STYLE, introduced by GE at $99.95; new 11-in. set weighs ]2% lb., uses no chassis, will be at stores early in June. Allchannel version uses transistorized tuner (p. 8). SET MAKERS NET GOOD FIRST QUARTER: 11 of 13 TV-radio manufacturers analyzed boosted sales, 9 increased earnings, 7 had record sales, 4 record earnings. However, combined earnings of 8 volume producers dipped more than $300,000 despite $17.2 million sales gain to $287.8 million (p. 9). FM-STEREO STATION slowdown results in only about 20 new stereocasters so far this year; total now stands at 230 in U.S. & Canada. FM Stereo Market Guide shows 86 stations preparing for stereo (p. 10). FIRST-QUARTER SALES: ElA's official Jan. -March figures show distributor sales of b&w TV ahead of 1962's opening quarter by some 73,000 units, radio down 290,000, phonos ahead 134,000 (p. 14). SIRAGUSA LOOKS AHEAD, predicts 2.5 million color set sales, 23.5 million radios, 4.2 million stereo phonos in 1968 at NICB conference; sees good business rest of this year (p. 14). NEXT-THE ^HENRY ADMINISTRATIONS "Tough" is the word everyone uses to describe the kind of FCC we'll have — with William Henry moving up to replace Newton Minow, Lee Loevinger coming in to fill the vacancy, joining Kenneth Cox as the 3rd Kennedy appointee. Certainly there will be attempts at toughness, undoubtedly more than under Minow. But remember that the 3 New Frontiersmen don't make a majority — and their efforts to give industry stronger medicine could well become more & more unpalatable to their 4 colleagues — Hyde, Bartley, Lee & Ford. Last 3, however, aren't averse to prodding industry from time to time. Henry is hard to puzzle out. Couple times, he has used strong language — but seemed to water it down when asked to elaborate. For example, in news conference during Omaha hearings, he said: "I don't think necessarily that the standard that the community might have [regarding programming] is necessarily the one we would have." This prompted Rep. Harris (D-Ark.) to ask Minow if that's FCC policy. Minow then wrote that Henry said he intended only to reflect Commission's 1960 policy statement, didn't mean that FCC should direct programming. Another case; In recent Nashville speech, he said that station's percentage of sustaining time "is one of many appropriate yardsticks or guidelines" with which to judge performance. Then, in news conference last week, he said: "Public service programs can be commercial," but the 1960 policy statement "isn't clear" and "we should reevaluate the policy; I dont know what it should be." Though Henry is personable, most observers expect him to work through FCC rules rather than "going to the public" — as Minow did with tremendous flair. Henry is 34, youngest chairman in FCC history,